{"id":33673,"date":"2025-03-03T10:24:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=33673"},"modified":"2025-03-03T10:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:24:47","slug":"features-of-effective-boycotts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=33673","title":{"rendered":"features of effective boycotts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Classic boycotts have these features:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A goal: What the boycott aims to achieve.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A target: a decision-maker who is capable of doing something relevant to the goal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. A demand: something that the target could agree to do.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. A cost: something that the target will lose if they don’t meet the demand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Negotiators: Individuals who can credibly agree to stop the boycott if the target complies sufficiently.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. A message: a description of the boycott that is aimed at relevant third-parties, such as observers who are undecided about the issue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Accountable leaders: people who decide on the previous six points and are answerable to those who actually boycott.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I am not posting this list to cast shade on the national boycott that took place on Feb. 28. I participated! And some of these components may have been in place. For example, people<\/a> who boycotted through “Black churches with longstanding social justice ministries (like Trinity UCC in Chicago)” did have accountable leaders who articulated a message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also, it is possible that the seven features that made the Great Salt March and the Montgomery Bus Boycott succeed are not required in every successful action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nevertheless, we must think critically about strategy, or else we are less likely to win. I would recommend attention to the strategies that were so important to Gandhi and King. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A teaching case that I wrote for Johns Hopkins’ Agora Institute about the Montgomery Bus Boycott is available free here<\/a> and can be used by voluntary groups as well as by students in courses. At its heart, it asks people to think about goals, targets, demands, methods, and decision-making processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    See also: the current state of resistance, and what to do about it<\/a>; strategizing for civil resistance in defense of democracy<\/a>; building power for resisting authoritarianism<\/a>; Rev. James Lawson, Jr on Revolutionary Nonviolence<\/a>; three new cases for learning how to organize and make collective change<\/a>; learning from Memphis, 1968<\/a>; etc.
    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Classic boycotts have these features: I am not posting this list to cast shade on the national boycott that took place on Feb. 28. I participated! And some of these components may have been in place. For example, people who boycotted through “Black churches with longstanding social justice ministries (like Trinity UCC in Chicago)” did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,45,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civic-theory","category-nonviolence","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33673"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33682,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33673\/revisions\/33682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}